Consumer TechConsumer technology is going to exist indefinitely, perhaps for as long as the human species exists. At CleanTechnica, we try to feature consumer technologies that help to reduce global warming pollution and other types of pollution. For example: electric cars, solar panels, bikes, energy efficient appliances and electronics, and green smartphone apps. Keep an eye on this category for all sorts of fun and cool, helpful consumer technology.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Director Dan Arvizu recently gave a keynote speech during the 2013 International Renewable Energy Conference (part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week), which I was lucky enough to attend*. His speech covered a large variety of cleantech topics, and most of the points he made have been covered extensively here on CleanTechnica. However, a couple of his points stood out to me as rather interesting and relatively uncovered.

Some of them are the foci of the interviews I conducted with him after his presentation (see the posts linked on the bottom of this article). But I decided to leave a couple of the points out of our interviews since they’re pretty straightforward and the chart presenting them is available on the NREL website, and now right here:

The takeaway points from the chart are:

The current efficiencies of all types of solar modules and solar cells are nowhere near their theoretical efficiency limits. (And that’s not to say the theoretical limits can’t also increase.)

Thin-film solar (CdTe) is especially ripe for efficiency improvements (commentary on that below), as are concentrated photovoltaics (CPV).

The general benefit of thin-film solar is that it’s cheaper than conventional PV. Its downside is that it’s less efficient, but as you can see in the chart above, its theoretical efficiency limit is equal to or better than every other type of solar besides CPV (which is very efficient but still quite expensive).

Of course, there are thin-film solar companies other than First Solar that are vying to take a bigger portion of the market (such as Japan’s Solar Frontier), and they are trying to develop better thin-film solar technology in order to do so. And improvements to thin-film solar cell efficiency are being made regularly in labs and universities around the world. So, overall, it seems that we can expect that gap between real-world efficiency and theoretical efficiency to keep closing.

I guess the question this leaves us with is which technology or technologies will improve their real-world efficiencies using low-cost materials quickly enough to dominate the solar power market in the coming decades?

*Full Disclosure: my trip to Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week was funded by Masdar. That said, I was completely free to cover what I wanted throughout the week, and at no point did I feel under pressure to cover any specific events or Masdar in any particular way.

About the Author

Zachary Shahan is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species), one letter at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity; or as president of Important Media. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media: ZacharyShahan.com.

i wonder why the difference between the shop and the research is so big.

SolarCurator

Correction needed: CIGS thin film PV firm Solar Frontier is a Japanese company, not Australian, and is owned by Showa Shell.

http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

Thanks. Sorry for the delay.

wattleberry

One expression of PV utility which I would find fascinating, especially at the top-end of the efficiency table, would be the effect it would have when mounted on vehicles instead of the usual paint/glass finishes. Because this is where space is most at a premium and the power demand so high, initial expense is much less of an issue. As well as the obvious application to road transport, what contribution could it make to trains,utilising all the rolling stock surfaces including containers, aircraft auxiliary systems and ships [containers again,plus the ship surfaces] even if only to power the automated sails.

Thanks for the very comprehensive Tom Murphy link, albeit dated almost one and a half years ago. I suppose we could take heart from the improvements already made against the theoretical maximum efficiency more than double the 30% discussed in the article. Also, the improvement in batteries in that time. Perhaps Mr Murphy might have some more views on this?

tbert

Sure, he’d probably say “the current efficiencies are sufficient to the problem at hand when properly deployed”: http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/09/dont-be-a-pv-efficiency-snob/
As he says in that article, the bottleneck is price. So unless you’re talking about a coating for your car that is both 30+% efficient and less costly than adding capacity plus storage sufficient to the needs of your vehicle, you’re falling into the trap of holding faith in future improvements over the application of presently-working solutions.
Don’t get me wrong; i think a low-cost, durable PV coating for your car at ~5% efficiency would be a game-changer; but I’m not holding out hope that Unobtanium will solve our energy issues.

Bob_Wallace

Improvements in efficiency and solve the problem of light angle acceptance.

Solar panels need to face the Sun in order to produce at maximum output. Car surfaces are basically flat/horizontal or vertical. Both are bad, very bad, for solar capture.

dynamo.joe

The idea of ‘coating’ a train with PV is stupid (the amount of punishment freight trains take is almost literally unthinkable), but the idea of ‘roofing’ the tracks seems like it might be reasonable. Kind of like that roofing canals article.

Wind Energy

Search the IM Network

The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by, and do not necessarily represent the views of Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc., its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.